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LitScan

How Well is the World Press Covering UN Reform?

Now that the flood of press coverage accompanying the 50th Anniversary of the UN system is ebbing, it's time for a sober review of just what has been said in the world press. Our major finding is disturbing, if only because it bolsters the international stereotype that America suffers in the world. Some US magazines that are normally noted for impartial analysis seem to have succumbed to the current political fad of isolationism. But there's an upside, too; a number of key media sources bucked the trend and examined how to put the 'international' back into their reporting on the international system.

London Review of Books The UN at 50. Midlife Crisis By Erskine Childers
In World Press Review, June 1995, reprinted from an August 1994 article. A rare and brilliant analysis of how the industrial North has sabotaged the UN process by granting itself special veto powers. Calls for a return to the more democratic and truly international vision of the UN Charter and of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.

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The Muslim (Pakistan) A Great LetdownBy Ali Muhammad
In World Press Review, June 1995, reprinted from a February 7, 1995 article
A strong argument that the UN has become an "instrument of the powerful countries and their designs". Cites evidence of big power interests being consistently favoured and of empty international resolutions on places like Kashmir, South Africa, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Bosnia.

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Newsweek Battle Scars By Carroll Bogert
October 30, 1995A sprightly primer on UN reform and the lack of global consensus on what the UN should reform into - development agency or international emergency outfit or global town hall? The US role in contributing to this lack of clarity - while cutting contributions from 31 to 25% of the UN budget - comes under particular scrutiny.

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Time Draining the Swamp By George J. Church
October 23, 1995Discusses UN reform as if world leadership were a matter for management consultants - of increasing operational efficiency and all that jazz. The North-South split merits a mention as a management hurdle rather than an underlying problem of global governance requiring urgent attention. 		Thumbs Down


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Eureka! Pretty Polished		 Thumbs Down
A few Holes


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Virtual Ideas		 The UN and Bretton Woods: Rethinking Global Governance - a DI special feature with the People Centred Development Forum